The past 30 years have seen a great revival of General Relativity and Cosmology, and major developments in astrophysics. On the theoretical side this has been centred on the rise of the Hot Big Bang model of cosmology and on our developing understanding of the properties of black holes. On the observational side it has been based on astonishing improvement of detectors and measuring instruments in astronomy and experimental relativity, in particular enabling measurement of the microwave background radiation and extension of astronomical observations to the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

Dennis Sciama has played an important role in these developments, particularly through the research schools he has run at Cambridge, Oxford, and Trieste, supervising and inspiring many research students who have worked on these topics, and challenging his colleagues with penetrating questions about the physics and mathematics involved. The extent of his influence will become apparent on studying the Family Tree of students, and the list of books that have been the product of those who have taken part in these research groups (see below).

Dennis' 65th Birthday was on November 18, 1991. To mark this event, a meeting was held at SISSA, Trieste (Italy) from 13th to 15th April, 1992, under the title The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology: A survey meeting to celebrate the 65th birthday of Dennis Sciama.